31 weeks and no eggs from 6/10 hens - do I have a problem?

[Savoryhill]

32 weeks and still eggless...sigh....

 

[Branch Chickens]

Mine will be 32 weeks on Monday

 

[Savoryhill]

It's disapointing. I have 4 hens and not one egg.

 

[rebrascora]

@ Savoryhill..... so sorry to hear that you are still waiting for your ladies to provide you with some excitement and breakfast of course! What breed/s do you have? Are you getting any interest in the nest boxes? Reddening of combs, singing the egg song etc. Make sure your nest boxes are attractive and secluded, so they feel safe there.
My hens have been giving me the run around this morning! It's so wet and horrible here at the moment that the eggs are getting filthy off their feet, so I have been trying to listen for egg songs and collect them before the next hen gets in on top of them to lay hers. They free range in an old farm yard where there are several open fronted buildings they have access to and I have nests in each of those buildings to attract them as well as the official ones in the hen house. Three times this morning I heard the egg song from a particular building/location and when I made my way there (within seconds) and quietly peeked in, they had stopped singing and there was no sign of the hen or an egg. I'm starting to think that I have ventriloquist hens who can throw their voices or they are playing games with me.

I must confess, I did change my feed a few weeks back to a slightly higher protein, but just 17% (it was the highest my feed store had other than medicated chick rearer) from the 16% which is my usual layer pellets and to be honest they are hardly eating any of it. I have a mixed flock so I feed quite a lot of mixed corn for the youngsters and cockerels but of course the layers make sure they get their share which most people will say is not conducive to good egg laying. Then again they free range and spend most of their time in my horses muck heap or stable beds, usually making a mess when I have just swept up!!! I guess they get quite a bit of protein from the bugs and worms etc.

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your girls step up and reward you soon.

 

[Savoryhill]

@ Rebrascora
Thanks for your response! That's a lot to digest!
I have only 4 hens, 2 Bard rocks, 1 RI Red and an Araucana. The bard rocks have the most developed combs (see my profile photo taken about 4-5 weeks ago). The RI red is fairly devolved and the Aracauna has none. They're all the same age. They don't free range...I have a coop that's 3x4' and have two nests. They do explore it but maybe I need to put up some kind of frayed curtain so they have privacy? I put some fake brown wooden eggs in there about 8 weeks ago. They kick them out of there from time to time so I know they visit the nests. Also i see scratch marks in the wood at the bottom of the nests. I've been using Purina Layena feed after they finished the grower feed. This bag is almost empty and I'm considering getting something different. Any suggestions? I make sure they have water every day. I do give them table scraps every other day in their pen which is about the same size as the coop. I use wood shavings in their coop ever since I had them at 4 weeks. I clean the coop about once a week...
Any thoughts would be helpful.
Thanks!

 

[rebrascora]

Is it possible you have an egg eater? That barred rock looks pretty ready to lay, especially if that photo was taken a month ago.
What makes me ask is, if they have been kicking out the wooden eggs, it would be very easy for a first real egg to have got kicked out and smashed and they tasted it and liked it and then learned that it's worth trying to break the eggs. They can clean up a broken egg pretty fast and effectively. Another contributary factor that might lead to this is that their run isn't very big, so they might be more inclined to look for mischief in the nest boxes out of boredom. Do the nest boxes have a good high lip on the front? If not, I would amend that, so it's much harder for them to kick the nesting material and eggs out. Also, if you can, perhaps give them a larger run by building an add on extension or consider giving them toys (a simple small plastic drinks bottle with a little hole drilled in the side filled with pellets or meal worms or scratch that they have to push/kick around to get the contents to come out and maybe make a little swing or put simple perches in it and scatter their feed in a scratching area filled with wood chip or dead leaves etc, so they have to work for their food rather than eat from a feeder and then look for mischief the rest of the day. Don't worry too much about waste as they can clean up a small area pretty quickly and effectively. I have a feeder with layer pellets in the hen house but I scatter mixed corn in the paddock and yard twice a day for mine and they spend time picking that up and then scratching in case they missed any and then they move into the stables/muck heap and go through the horses bedding and then they have a bit of a doze or go and lay eggs or dust bath. Do yours have a dust bath area. If not create one for them. It's all part of having healthy happy chickens.

I can't advise on brand of feed I'm afraid as I don't think you will have the same as here in the UK. I was just using the cheapest layer pellets here through the summer which was fine but then since some of the older ladies were going through a hard moult I wanted to up the protein level for them, hence changing to the one I am currently using, but I plan to change back very soon, now they are mostly over the moult.

Hope that info has given you some food for thought.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Branch Chickens]

All of my non-layers look ready to lay, but for me, it's definitely the reduced light and overcast weather in Maine. I have heard similar things from so many other people!
I'm planning to introduce light to the coop to give them 12-14 hours of "daylight".

 

[Savoryhill]

Finally!!!
After 34 weeks we finally got eggs...2 of them. I'm not sure from who but I'm thinking it's one of the Bard Rocks. 1 week ago I introduced light to the coop but not a heat lamp. The shells are harder than store bought eggs as far as I can tell and slightly smaller.

 

[pdirt]

There are differing opinions about this but one school of thought is to never feed layer feed to birds that are not laying. There is a LOT more calcium in layer feed compared to non-layer feeds. It has a good chance of causing visceral gout or kidney problems, if practiced long term. Key word here is "chance" because it will affect different birds differently. Just thought you should know in case you didn't already. A week or two of a molting bird eating layer feed won't do much harm, but a couple months of it is not good. It can be particularly hard on chicks and young birds. Lots of people claim they feed layer feed to ALL their birds, all the time, without any ill effect, but research has shown that this isn't a good idea. It might work for one person's flock but you can't apply that to anyone else's.

We make it easy on ourselves and our flock. We feed a 19% grower, with crushed oyster shell on the side for the laying birds. Non-laying birds (chicks, molters, roosters) will eat very little of the oyster shell. We feed 19% because this helps off-set the low protein table scraps we like to feed most days.

The supplemental light should be slowly increased. Add 15-30 minutes of extra light in the morning and each week add an additional 15-30 minutes until you get up to about 14 hours of total daylight (natural+supplemented). This might take you a couple months. Doing it slowly will be easier on them and won't cause much stress. If you suddenly blast them with 6 hours of extra light a day, it could be very stressful to them.

Also, some breeds seem to lay pretty well without supplemental light. But overall, most breeds will lay few to no eggs during the dark days of winter, unless you trick them with supplemental light.

 

[Branch Chickens]

We decided to supplement their light (14 hrs) two weeks ago, and we are now up to 8-9/10 layers. It is awesome, and our birds seem very content.